Agile leadership perception of employees in the VUCA world: Research at a state university

In this study, it was aimed to increase the level of knowledge and awareness about this concept by examining the components of VUCA (variability, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity) on the employees working in the academic and administrative staff, and to determine the agile leadership skills of the managers from the perception of the employees. In this study, which was conducted 701 staff with 187 participants working at a state university operating in Turkey, the data obtained through the online questionnaire were analyzed using SPSS 25.0 and AMOS 21.0 statistical package programs. One of the VUCA components, variability, Resistance to Change, uncertainty Intolerance to Uncertainty consisting of two sub-dimensions: Advanced and Disruptive Anxiety, complexity Cognitive Flexibility, ambiguity Tolerance for ambiguity, Agile Leadership Perception consists of six sub-dimensions: result-oriented, team-oriented, competent, flexible, fast and change-oriented. It was measured by using Agile Leadership scales. As a result of the research, the average score of the participants' resistance to change was low; cognitive flexibility, tolerance for ambiguity, and high inhibiting anxiety mean scores were determined. It has been seen that the average score of the perception of the results-oriented, competence and speed of the managers is higher; A positive and statistically significant relationship was found between cognitive flexibility scores and perception of speed. In this context, it is concluded that if the cognitive flexibility of the employees increases, their perceptions of the speed of their managers will also tend to increase.